Past Life

I was running for my life, trying to get away from whatever was chasing me. I could hear it breathing and crashing through the forest. It was pitch black, there was no moonlight or starlight. I couldn’t see anything. I could feel it gaining on me, I could hear the rasp in its throat, hungry to consume my flesh and tear me limb from limb. I could smell it, it smelt of rotten flesh mixed with a musky scent of mould. I tried to pick up the pace, but my legs started to grow heavy, I stumbled and fell.

“Abby?” I felt someone shake me, and say my name.

I woke with a start. I looked up to see my sister standing over me, bags under her eyes and her hair a mess. I was sweating, and trapped in my own bedsheets from tossing and turning.

“Sophie? I’m sorry, I was having that same nightmare again.” I sat up in bed and rubbed my face in my hands.

“I know, I could hear you thrashing around again. Here, I made you a cup of tea.” She handed me a hot cup of tea. It was soothing to hold, I grasped it with both of my hands and breathed the smell in.

“Thankyou.” I said to her as I took a sip.

“Abby, you really need to see someone about this. Its getting worse.” Sophie looked at me worried, she sat down on the end of my bed and folded her legs up underneath her.

“I know. I just don’t have time, with school and exams coming up.” I took another sip of the tea, it was helping ease my nerves.

“You wont be able to pass your exams if you’re exhausted from running in your sleep all night either.” She looked at me and rolled her eyes.

She was right. This has been going on for far too long.

“I’m going back to bed, just come and get me if you need anything.” Sophie got up off the bed and left my room.

She left me to my thoughts. I was someone who had very vivid dreams, I could tell you about all the dreams I’ve had in my life. But this particular one had been haunting me for about a year now.

It always started the same, I would be standing at the start of this beautiful forest, lush with life. You could see the deer frolicking in the ferns, the butterflies gently kissing the flowers, the foxes stalking the rabbits amongst the brush and you could hear the birds singing their songs. It was abundant and beautiful. I would start to walk through the forest taking it all in. Then the birds would stop singing, the animals would start running and a looming darkness would take over the forest. Everything changed from beautiful, bright and alive to dull and gray, void of life.

And then I would hear it, I would always hear it first, a horrible wailing noise from somewhere in the forest. I would start to run back to where I thought I came from, and would always get lost. The further I went in, the darker it got. The further I went in, the closer the beast would get.

I would always wake before it caught me.

I shuddered, bringing myself back to reality. I set the tea down, and looked at the time. The clock read that it was 4:14am. I sighed, I didn’t want to go back to sleep only to met with the same dream. I decided to get up and get ready for the day ahead.

I stopped to look at myself in the mirror. You could see how it was affecting me, the bags under my eyes, the saggy sunken cheeks. I looked awful. I groaned and went and had a shower.

By the time I was out and dressed, it was only 5am.

I went and made myself another cup of tea, and had some breakfast, trying to figure out a solution to my problem. I was scrolling mindlessly on my phone when an advertisement popped up.

Having weird dreams? Feeling lost? Cant quite shake the feeling that you have been here before? Contact today for a past life reading!

Normally, I would ignore these advertisements. But this may as well have jumped out my phone and slapped me in the face!

I decided to message the page. Almost immediately they responded, it didn’t seem shady and they were close by. Her name was Erin, she specialised in past life readings, she shared some of her story with me and invited me over, she said she could sense that I wasn’t in a good place and offered for me to come around now.

 I left a note on the kitchen bench for Sophie to let her know where I had gone. I jumped in my car and drove to Erin’s house. 

I arrived at her house, and knocked on the door. Erin greeted me, she was a very beautiful lady. Tall and slim, with long, curly ginger hair and striking green eyes.

I sat with Erin and spoke to her about my dream, recalling every detail.

“I can see how tired you are.” She sympathised with me.

“I just don’t know why it started and why it wont stop. I have tried almost everything to get them to stop.” I sighed and put my head in my hands, feeling defeated.

“Well, what I’ll do is get you to lie down on the couch for me. Ill walk you through some meditation, and hypnosis. We will sort this out.” She gestured to the couch which was lush with cushions.

We started the session with the usual meditation stuff. Ive tried all of this before, so I knew what to do. But then she started to take me down a different path. I started to feel really sleepy, but I was wide awake at the same time. It was like I was lucid dreaming, but it felt so different.

I could see a small cottage in the middle of a field. It was beautiful! It was abundant with flowers and plants, I could hear the birds chirping, the same way that they would chirp in my nightmare.

I walked up to the cottage, it was stunning. The detail in the woodwork, the painting on the house, it was gorgeous.

The place felt so familiar. I tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t open. I looked around, looking for someone. I started to walk around the back of the house, when I heard it. That familiar rasp. I froze, how could it be here? I looked around, panicked. I couldn’t see anything. I heard it move again, I threw myself up against the side of the house, praying that it wouldn’t sense me.

I heard it moving through the grass, I couldn’t see anything but I could sense it was getting closer to me.

I heard a door open, and heard someone come out. The rustling in the grass stopped rustling, and I couldn’t hear it. Whatever it was, it had stopped stalking me and turned its attention on whoever had come out of the cottage.

“Hello?” A man called. He sounded so familiar but I didn’t know who it was.

I heard him go back inside. The creature didn’t make a noise. I was too scared to move.

“Abby, you need to go deeper.” I heard Erin’s voice, very faintly but it was there.

I felt myself being pulled, it was like my soul was being pulled in a different direction. Everything faded and I found myself in a different place.

I was at the edge of the forest. But I wasn’t by myself this time. I heard the mans voice again.

“We just need to find some fire wood, okay darling?”

This man must have been my Father. He led me into the forest. It was the same as it was in my dreams, beautiful and stunning. The birds suddenly stopped chirping. I heard the rustling and I felt my Father tense.  

“You need to run, you need to run and you need to hide.” He whispered.

I didn’t know what to do, so I turned and I ran, panicked, confused. I could hear my Father running behind me, but I could also hear that familiar rasp. I could hear it coming for us.

I saw a fallen log, big enough for me to fit into. I rushed for it, hearing my Father yelp behind me.

I crawled in the log, and looked out of a hole in the log. I saw my Father, with the creature behind him. This was the first time I had ever seen the creature. It was massive. It was at least 2 metres tall, covered in dark fur, with a snarling mouth. Its fur was dirty and matted, I could smell it from where I was hiding.

I saw my Father look in my general direction, I saw the panic in his eyes. He turned around and faced the creature, it crashed into him, the force propelled them into the log I was hiding in.

I covered my ears as I listened to my Father die.

I gasped awake. I was covered in sweat and I was crying. Erin was by my side, soothing me.

“Erin, what happened?” I gasped.

“Oh sweety, what you saw was a past life. You died in that log. The creature you saw was simply a wolf, but because you were so young, it looked terrifying to you. You have been carrying this burden with you for lifetimes, you blamed yourself for your Fathers death. The cottage was your home, the wolf was stalking your family for a while. You can let this go now.”

I felt a weight lift from my shoulders. She was right, this was something I didn’t need to hold onto in this lifetime.

“Here, I made you a cup of tea.” She smiled and handed me a hot cup of tea. We sat and spoke for a couple of hours.

I left, feeling like I was a whole new person with a new lease on life.